Here's an article by Derek Lang of the Associated Press published in the 1/23/10 Newark Star-Ledger that does not appear to break new ground, but focuses (no surprise) on the celebrities who competed in AR16 and on van Munster commentary:

Jet and Cord McCoy, a pair of bull-riding brothers form Tupelo OK are among the 11 teams competing on the upcoming 16th edition of CBS' "The Amazing Race". Other teams set for this edition include a grandmother and granddaughter, a father and daughter, married high-school sweethearts and a couple of attorney moms.

Jet, 30, and Cord, 29, who have competed in the International Professional Rodeo Association circuit, said they were not daunted by their competition for the $1 million grand prize on the reality show, premiering Feb. 14 at 8pm.

"We ride bucking bulls and horses," said Jet. "If we're gonna be intimidated, it's not by another team."

"I can ride a horse as fast as they can go," said Cord.

The biggest hurdle facing Louis Stravato, 47, and Michael Naylor, 45, at the beginning of the race was their backpack. After seeing the behemoth bags carried by the Harlem Globetrotters last season, the long-time buddies and narcotics detectives from Providence RI chose not to pack lightly. They ended up ditching clothes along the way.

"We are the 2 biggest idiots," said Stravato. "Before the race, we kept telling ourselves that the cameramen were going to have to check their stuff, so we would be able to check our giants 90-liter bags while we were racing around the world. When we got to the starting line and saw all these small bags on everybody else, we knew we were in big trouble."

A few of this season's contestants have previously been in the spotlight, including former "Big Brother" housguests Jordan Lloyd, 22, and Jeff Schroeder, 31 as well as former Miss Teen South Carolina Caitlin Upton, 20, who is racing with her boyfriend Brent Horne, 28. Upton said she wanted to redeem herself on the race after ther infmaous 2007 pageant flub involving a confused and misguided response to a geography question.

"People always picture me as the typical pageant girl and I'm not at all," said Upton. "I've only been in 5 pageants. I'm actually a very athletic person. I'm just tired of being represented from that standpoint. I want to show people who I really am as a person, that I am capable of accomplishing anything and doing anything I put my mind to."

Lloyd said Schroeder, who began dating after Lloyd won the 11th season of "Big Brother last summer, said fans of the claustrophobic reality show must be surprised to see how much the duo bickered on the 16th season of "the Amazing Race," which was filmed last December, and spanned nearly 40,000 miles across 5 continents and 8 countries.

"I wasn't prepared for how much we had to work together," admitted Schroeder.

"He wanted to ring my neck," added Lloyd, "and other times I wanted to kill him."

"Jordan, I was trying to say it in a nice way, said Schroeder.

For the first time, when the teams departed "the Amazing Race" starting line, they had to rely solely on public transportation - no rental cars, no taxis - to make their way from downtown Los Angeles to the airport, as world-class challenge in itself. Executive producer Bertram van Munster said the racers then head to Valparaiso, Chile. Other stops included France and the Seychelles.

"We have never been to that place before," van Munster said of the lush island destination off the east coast of Africa. "We were looking into going to Africa, but I couldn't find any countries that would fit into the entire scheme of the race, and i wanted to go to an original place . It's very beautiful. It's very remote. It takes forever to get there."

CBS has ordered more editions of its Emmy Award-winning reality franchises-SURVIVOR and THE AMAZING RACE-for broadcast in the 2010-2011 season.

SURVIVOR will return with two more editions, marking the 21st and 22nd installments of broadcast television's longest-running reality competition series.

Last fall, SURVIVOR: SAMOA (7.8/12, 13.45m million viewers), the franchise's 19th edition, continued its ratings dominance, winning its Thursday (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) time period in viewers, adults 18-49 (4.3/12) and adults 25-54 (5.4/13).

The series' 20th edition, SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS, premieres with a special two-hour episode on Thursday, Feb. 11 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS reunites 20 of the most memorable, heroic and controversial castaways from previous SURVIVOR seasons. The series' best strategists will face off in their attempt to overcome - or embrace - the label placed upon them when they return to seek revenge or redemption, all in an effort to win the title of Sole Survivor. Emmy Award winner Jeff Probst hosts.

The groundbreaking reality series, which premiered in May 2000, has anchored CBS's winning Thursday lineup since February 2001. It won an Emmy Award in 2001 in the category of "Outstanding Non-Fiction Program" (Special Class). Host Jeff Probst is a two-time Emmy Award winner in the category of "Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Series."

SURVIVOR is produced by SEG, Inc. Mark Burnett is executive producer and David Burris and Leisa Francis are co-executive producers.

CBS has also ordered the 17th edition of the seven-time Emmy Award-winning reality series THE AMAZING RACE, hosted by Phil Keoghan.

It was only half a page so I just cropped out the extra above this and then here is a more cropped in one of the photo from the race, I don't know if it will help determine anything but figured I would post it JIC

The band members in the webcap resemble the band Blasmusik Puerto Varas. The uniforms are the same, and the guy on the left might be Boris Eduardo (go here, then click Músicos>mugshots). I can't find a tuba, though.

The band members in the webcap resemble the band Blasmusik Puerto Varas. The uniforms are the same, and the guy on the left might be Boris Eduardo (go here, then click Músicos>mugshots). I can't find a tuba, though.

That inset photo makes me wonder if Jet/Cord might have found some kindred souls in Chile.

It also makes me think that Jordan and Jeff made it to at least the third episode. Possibly they could be that far into the Andes in the second episode, but I doubt it. The timeline refers to a sheep ranch in the third episode. Could that have been taken there?

It also makes me think that Jordan and Jeff made it to at least the third episode. Possibly they could be that far into the Andes in the second episode, but I doubt it. The timeline refers to a sheep ranch in the third episode. Could that have been taken there?

We already know that Jeff & Jordan aren't out first, and we know Jody & Shannon are out second, so we already know that Jeff & Jordan made it to Leg 3.

Logged

"The authority of example and considerations of character, unlike pudding, are not whipped up in an instant." - Neal A. Maxwell

Undercover detectives, lawyers, cowboys, "Big Brother" participants, a YouTube sensation, parents, siblings and a model or two is what viewers will find amongst the contestants during the 16th cycle of the Emmy-winning "The Amazing Race," which kicks off this Sunday on CBS. With nearly 40,000 miles to cover in this season's race, teams (and viewers) will head to Chile for their first destination and it's just the start for the prize to win a million dollars. To get the scoop on how host Phil Keoghan remembers details of the past 15 seasons, why people do the race and his thoughts on losing the Best Realty Host Emmy to Jeff Probst, our Jim Halterman chatted one-on-one with Keoghan earlier this week.

Jim Halterman: You've been doing this for so long, do the past seasons blend together for you or are they actually pretty distinct?

Phil Keoghan: There are times when you really have to think about what you did what season and who was on what season but when you really think about it, they are all really distinctive. Once I start to think about the particular season it all comes back. One of the challenging things for me is that I've been doing a lot of international press last week and I was asked to speak about season 14 and so I had to actually go back and look at the team photographs and just refresh myself with exactly what happened and then, of course, I can't talk about the story points of what's happened because people haven't seen the show yet. I have to take myself back and that's always interesting. We have done a lot of shows.

JH: Caite Upton was a big national joke in 2007 for her not-so-sharp answers during the Miss Teen USA pageant but, using her as an example, do a lot of people join the race because they have something to prove?

PK: Yeah, there's no doubt that many people come on to the show because they have something to prove whether it's to themselves because they want to prove that they can do things like facing the fear of heights or just pushing themselves. Caite is definitely on this show to prove that her response to a question in that pageant is not a true reflection of who she is. You'll have to be a judge as a viewer as to whether you think she has redeemed herself.

JH: I actually felt a little sorry for her on the show when people were making fun of her right in front of her.

PK: She would have known that was going to happen. If she's there to prove that she isn't the way that people perceive her then you know it's not going to happen instantly. People aren't going to ignore it. That's why she's on the race because she wanted to address it. She had to come to expect that people are definitely going to hone in on that because that's the way they know her now.

JH: There seems to always be a gay contestant on the show. Has that become a requirement?

PK: No, it's not a requirement. We interview about 20-25 teams in person and then once all teams have gone through we lay out all their cards on the table and talk about a balance or a mix. It's not a prerequisite but inherently in the mix the chances of one of those 25 teams, which is 50 people, being gay is going to be pretty high. They're a part of society and obviously some of them are an interesting part of society so I think it just happens. It's not like we say we have to have a gay couple or a particular group. We still want a mix. We want people to be represented but it's not a prerequisite to have one or the other.

JH: The show is still so popular. Is it the contestants' personalities? The challenges? Seeing the world? Or is it just you, Phil?

PK: It's not me. It's definitely a combination of all those things that you just mentioned. What I hear from people a lot is 'we love visiting new places.' The places themselves are definitely a star factor on the show. People want to see new things in different places because they vicariously travel with the show. As a population, Americans are not that well traveled internationally. We travel a lot domestically but a very small percentage of them actually own passports compared to other Western countries. That's just a fact. I think it's something like 6% of Americans have active passports. We're not well traveled compared to the Germans, who I believe are the most well traveled population in the world. I think for the viewers, it's a way to look outside of America and maybe be surprised and see things that they don't normally see in the same light. When you see the rest of the world on television, generally it's in the news and there's something going wrong. We are a prime time show that is showing the rest of the world in a totally different light where it's people fishing, people preparing food or trying to make a living in some interesting way like collecting salt in Africa. We're able to shed a little positive light on the rest of the world in prime time to a bigger audience than other television is able to do because of the context and tone that our show is.

JH: Jeff Probst has won the Best Host Emmy the last two years so maybe it's your turn now. What do we have to do to make that happen?

PK: How much money do you have? [Laughs.] That's very nice of you. The same people that voted for him voted for our show to be the best show so I have no complaints and I've been lucky enough to have been a part of being on "The Amazing Race" as a producer and a host. I'm certainly not feeling like I'm missing out.

JH: How was the experience riding your bike across America last year?

PK: Life changing. I've been reliving it with the documentary I'm cutting right now. We're almost finished with it. We shot the whole thing in HD and probably a year after we set out [on the ride] we should have this thing finished and our goal is to get it out there and even raise more awareness and money for MS.

JH: Will it air on CBS or show in theaters?

PK: I don't know. We decided to self-fund it so we didn't have to make it for anybody else in terms of what we did with it creatively. If you make a show for someone specifically and they're putting up the money then obviously they want it cut a certain way and tell the story a certain way so we decided that we'd cut the story the best way that we could and the way that we thought would work best and then we'll try to find a home.

JH: Outside hosting the show, you've accomplished so much in your life. Do you still have a lot on your bucket list?

PK: Oh yeah. The idea is that you die with the list. When they finally say goodbye you should have a list that's incomplete because theoretically you're living every day with wanting to do more.

JH: Have you seen MTV's "The Buried Life where you see young guys doing a bucket list and helping people?

PK: I think it's great especially with young people being inspired to want to do things. They're the toughest people to get to with this philosophy. I've heard a number of people mention it to me and that it has the same set of philosophy as NOW (No Opportunity Wasted) and I see that as a good thing. I haven't seen the show but hopefully it's done in a good way but the underlying philosophy of it sounds really cool. I encourage that and I think it's a good thing.

The 16th season of "The Amazing Race" begins this Sunday at 8:00/7:00c on CBS.

I can understand how it could happen and why. Writing such stories based on advance screening is commonly down by entertainment reviewers. This is a holiday weekend, and the writer having gotten the preview to screen, wrote the story and passed it on to their supervising editor. I'll bet the supervising editor, or someone after that didn't notice that the story shouldn't go out until Sunday evening after the show completed airing.

Victor Jih will be blogging this season's episodes, offering his general impressions and critiquing the decisions of the teams. Head over and leave some comments if you want to help him win his contest.

Once host Phil Keoghan sends the contestants on their way and before they reach the first Pit Stop at the end of the episode, no fewer than three other teams do things that are completely and totally perplexing to an outside viewer. Without delving too greatly here into what takes place in the episode, it is more than fair to say that plenty of people watching at home will find themselves shaking their heads at the teams we have before us this cycle.

That is an incredibly disappointing statement, as The Amazing Race is one of the best – if not the best – conceived and put together reality show on television. The amount of effort that clearly goes into working out the locations and challenges is immense, and even here, where the contestants are found wanting, the show is able to pull through due to the travelogue it puts together.

CBS's multiple-Emmy-winning The Amazing Race returns this Sunday for its sixteenth season. (As someone who watched and loved it from the first go-round and watched it barely get renewals in the early going, it's a real surprise to hear myself saying "sixteenth season," but there you are.)

I know exactly how she feels. And I do share, in a way, her view about the differences in casting since the early days.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.comWhy Microsoft's Joe Wang Is "The Amazing Race's" Newest Villain"The Amazing Race" is unlike most reality TV shows in that it actually forces its contestants to think about the world at large, and not just themselves. It's like every other reality TV show, however, in the way it keeps viewers tuned in: by presenting people you either love or love to hate.Joe Wang, a 42-year-old Microsoft salesman paired with his wife Heidi, would be in the latter category.TechFlash interviewed Wang yesterday. And while he expressed surprise when told that the Birmingham News handicapped him as the 16th season's villain, it's easy to see how he might fit the bad guy role.Let's break down why, using Wang's own words.Comment Number One In his CBS bio, Wang says if he could pick anyone to switch places with it would be his son Jameson, because he has "unlimited potential."Why This Makes Him a Reality TV Bad Guy While it's nice Wang thinks his kid is talented, its tainted by the fact that he actually wants to be him. It's an answer that smacks of Little League Dad Syndrome. Want to spot Wang at his son's baseball game? Look for the scarily intense dude with a radar gun needling his kid's coach for more playing time and yelling at the ump to check the opposing pitcher's brim for any "funny stuff."Comment Number TwoIn his interview with TechFlash, Wang took time out to talk about how awesome of a guy he was and what that meant for his bosses: "One thing I do want to say is that I think this represents well for Microsoft, to have an individual like myself in the public eye."Why This Makes Him a Reality TV Bad GuyTV Bad Guys are always arrogant. But that arrogance comes in two forms.In Form One, the Arrogant Bad Guy recognizes and highlights his arrogance so as to further piss off the audience. (See, Mr. Perfect, The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, or any other WWF villain from 1988-present.)In Form Two, the Arrogant Bad Guy is ignorant to his own arrogance. A lack of self-awareness that makes him equally loathsome. (See, Joe Wang.)Comment Number ThreeBecause his wife says so. Poor Heidi, on her pet peeve about her teammate: "Joe is a very intense and short tempered individual who thinks he's right all the time!"Why This Makes Him a Reality TV Bad GuyEven your wife thinks you're a know-it-all with a short fuse? Congratulations Joe, you're now the villain.